NEW FOCUS ON HINDU STUDIES. By Arvind Sharma.New Delhi: D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd., 2005. Pp. 159. $15,ISBN 81-246-0307-3.

In this book, Sharma observes the challenges involved inthe historical study of Hinduism through an analysis of litera-ture pertaining to four historical periods: Vedic, Classical,Medieval, and Modern, and provides foci that can benefitscholars of Hinduism. Sharma asserts, “the study of Hindu-ism must not only look at India and Hinduism through Hindueyes and then at the West or other religions and cultures interms of Hindu categories; it must look at itself in the light ofthe ‘other’.” Beginning with general observations on thestudy of Hinduism, he analyzes the literature that emergedduring various periods and sheds light on Hindu thought,especially on Hindu-Muslim and Hindu-Christian encountersat political, religious, and mythic levels. Considering theviews of R. Roy, S. Radhakrishnan, and Mahatma Gandhi, heexamines the source material of Hindus themselves for studyof the history of Hinduism in the modern period. As Sharmahighlights the origins of Hindu fundamentalism, he investi-gates the concepts of conversion and secularism in Indiaagainst the backdrop of modern Hinduism in contention withthe ideological forces of Islam, Christianity, and science. Heconcludes with a word of caution for those involved in thestudy of Hinduism that all perspectives must be consideredwhile understanding Hinduism. For example, despite the factthat Godse assassinated Gandhi, “both Gandhi and Godsestand united in their commitment to an undivided India.” Thisvolume represents well the state of several lines of criticalinquiry developing within Hindu studies today. In spite of thedivision of his analysis into different time periods, Sharma’sattention to ongoing debates among thinkers holds the collec-tion together, enabling those involved in the academic studyof Hinduism to consider many pressing matters confrontingthe study of Hinduism.

George PatiValparaiso University

ON THE CUSP OF AN ERA: ART IN THE PRE-KUSANA WORLD. Edited by Doris Meth Srinivasan.Brill’s Inner Asian Library 18. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill,2007. Pp. vi + 402; figures. $228, ISBN 978-90-04-15451-3.

The Kusana period from the second quarter of thesecond-century CE to the mid third-century CE saw a tre-mendous rise and standardization in the artistic and visualculture of the region from contemporary Uzbekistan toBihar. This artistic codification went hand-in-hand with thecreation of a shared set of cultural institutions, includingreligious ones. A new overview of these developments is amajor desideratum of scholarship on South Asia. The argu-ment behind this excellent volume, based on a 2000 confer-ence at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, is thatpreparatory to such an effort it is necessary to engage in asystematic exploration of the precursors of this grand cul-tural synthesis, with a focus primarily on what we canbroadly term northwest India. The fourteen essays by

leading experts cover the period from Graeco-Bactrian artin the mid third-century BCE until the establishment ofKaniska’s era, now argued to be 127 CE. The specializedessays use data on trade and migration routes, coins, sculp-ture, archaeological sites, inscriptions, and Buddhist monas-tic codes. As “most of all, Kusana art comprises religiousart,” these studies of pre-Kusana art deal extensively withreligious objects, sites and institutions, and so this volumewill be essential reading for all scholars interested in under-standing the development of religion in ancient north India.

John E. CortDenison University

ELEMENTS OF JAINA GEOGRAPHY: THEJAMBUDVIPASANGRAHAMI OF HARIBHADRASURI CRITICALLY EDITED AND TRANSLATEDWITH THE COMMENTARY OF PRABHANANDASURI. Edited and translated by Frank Van Den Bossche.Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 2007. Pp. xiv + 327; 12color figures. Rs. 495, ISBN 81-208-2934-4.

The Jains are famous for their complex geography inwhich intricate and vast calculations “are moulded into aquasi-perfect image that satisfies the almost aestheticdemand for symmetry and relative proportion.” The authorwrites, “In Jaina cosmography and geography, the endeavourof the human mind to grasp his universe and his world inidealized patterns is illustrated at its best.” Jains of all tra-ditions have written copiously on geography, and its studyremains part of the curriculum for mendicants and intellec-tuals today. A key geography textbook for the Svetambaras isHaribhadra’s Jambudv pasangraham , a text of thirty versesin Maharashtri Prakrit composed in the first half of thetwelfth century. It deals not with the entirety of the Jaincosmography of the Cosmic Man (lokapurusa), but only thehumanly inhabited middle realm of Jambudvıpa, the RoseApple (rather, Black Plum) Island. In its sutra-style brevity,the text is nearly incomprehensible, requiring a commen-tary, in this case one in Sanskrit written by Prabhananda,probably written in the latter half of the twelfth century.Having this text and commentary readily available both inoriginal and English translation is a service to scholarship.The lack of an introductory overview of Jain cosmographyand the difficulties of Sanskrit commentarial prose stylemake this book suitable only for advanced students inter-ested in cosmology and history of science.

John E. CortDenison University

East AsiaRENNYO AND THE ROOTS OF MODERN JAPANESEBUDDHISM. Edited by Mark L. Blum and Shin’ya Yasu-tomi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. 320; illus-trations. Cloth, $60, ISBN 0-19-513275-0.

This book comes out of a conference at Otani Universityin 1998 that marked the 500th anniversary of Rennyo’s

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(1415-99) death. As its editors note, Rennyo, generally con-sidered the second founder of Jodo Shinshû after Shinran, isa critical figure in Japanese religious history who remainslittle known in the West. Their premise is that, as a religiousleader with “both personal charisma . . . and institutionalgenius,” Rennyo had “two historical faces”—“one spirituallyappealing, magnetic, and humble” . . . “the other politicallysavvy, powerful”—that were crucial for transforming theShinshû sect into the important national and now interna-tional religious organization that it is today. What makes thiscollection exciting is the care the editors have given toshaping it into a coherent whole, one that benefits bothspecialists and nonspecialists alike. The sixteen essays, withcontributions from noted scholars K. Toshio, A. Bloom, W.LaFleur, and others, are divided into three sections that offerdifferent interpretative lens for understanding Rennyo’s sig-nificance: historical studies that situate Rennyo’s life withinthe political instability of the times, Shinshû studies thatlook at particular sectarian issues, and comparative studies.Additionally, the collection covers a lot of ground fromRennyo’s time to the present, ending with R. Habito’s inter-esting essay on the impact of Rennyo’s leadership onShinshû understanding of its international mission today. Insum, this book is valuable for the new light it sheds on a keyreligious figure whose impact is often eclipsed by the sect’smore famous founder, Shinran.

Mark MacWilliamsSt. Lawrence University

GOING FORTH: VISIONS OF BUDDHIST VINAYA.Edited by William M. Bodiford. Honolulu: University ofHawai’i Press, 2005. Pp. 344; illultrations. $48, ISBN 978-0-8248-2787-8.

This book is a festshrift in honor of S. Weinstein and atestament to his gifts both as a scholar and a teacher giventhe vast array of fascinating essays that his former studentshave contributed to this volume on the Buddhist precepts inChina and Japan. As W. Bodiford, the editor, notes, thetypical English translation of vinaya as “rules of discipline”of the Buddhist order misses its deeper meaning. As notedthroughout this volume, vinaya are also the “social prac-tices” for managing the operation of religious institutionsand delineating the relations between monks and laity. Addi-tionally, they play a key role in defining not only the specificidentities of Buddhist groups, but also the contours of their“inner spiritual quest.” The focus of this volume is to showhow vinaya tradition was not static, but, by entering the EastAsian context, forged “new organizational forms and insti-tutional structures better adapted to the demands of localculture and history. . . .” The rich collection of essays beginswith Bodiford’s concise but extremely useful survey of theBuddhist precepts and the development of the Buddhistorder in East Asia. Other chapters hone in on particulartopics, such as the ordination platform movement in medi-eval Chinese Buddhism, the vinaya tradition and the devel-opment of Ch’an regulations, the precepts in Japanese Pure

Land Buddhism, the debate over meat eating in early modernJapanese Buddhism, and so on. Going Forth is essentialreading for those who miss the practical (and political) sideof East Asian Buddhism for the philosophical and doctrinal.Indeed, to miss this means ignoring the powerful role theprecepts have played in the major institutional changes ofthe Buddhist order in East Asian history.

Mark MacWilliamsSt. Lawrence University

CHINESE SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF CONFUCIUS(1000-250 BC): THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVI-DENCE. By Lothar von Falkenhausen. Los Angeles: CotsenInstitute of Archaeology, University of California-LosAngeles, 2006. Pp. xxiii + 555; plates, illustrations, maps.Cloth, $70, ISBN 1-931745-31-5; paper, $40, ISBN 1-931745-30-7.

Falkenhausen disregards the received narrative of earlyChinese intellectual, political, and religious history in orderto focus on what excavations alone can tell us about an erathat has been defined by Confucian agendas. Using inscribedbronze vessels buried in elite tombs, Falkenhausen arguesthat, although Confucians trace their practices and valuesback to the early Zhou dynasty (ca. 1046 BCE), “the rituals ofthe Zhou” actually originated in reforms carried out between850 and 600 BCE. A communitarian society based onkinship, which emphasized “dionysian” ecstasy and spiri-tual communion in ritual in a wide variety of ways acrossheterogeneous regions, the Zhou became a bureaucratizedsociety in which lineage was not necessarily destiny, whichvalued austere formalism and promoted a centralized, homo-geneous national culture. The legacies of this transformationcan be seen in the meritocratic idealism, the commitment toself-cultivation, the worship of form in ritual, the focus onthe living, and the appeal to Chineseness that are at the heartof Confucian spirituality, as well as in the Daoist bureaucra-tization of the afterlife and cosmicization of space and timein funeral ritual. While archaeological readers may quibblewith Falkenhausen’s periodizations and dependence uponelite grave goods, religionists will appreciate his demonstra-tion of how the “texts” of material culture can teach us muchabout the development of early Chinese religions. Those whoseek to broaden their approach to early China beyond clas-sical and canonical texts will benefit from his book.

Jeffrey L. RicheyBerea College

DAOIST BODY CULTIVATION: TRADITIONALMODELS AND CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES.Edited by Livia Kohn. Magdalena, NM: Three Pines Press,2006. Pp. 243. $24.95. ISBN 978-1-931483-05-6.

This volume brings together eight articles on varioustopics pertaining to Daoism and the cultivation of health andlongevity. While on the whole it provides a very engagingintroduction and overview of its subject matter, it is some-what lacking in original insights based on untapped primary

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sources or on fresh interpretations of primary materials. Themost illuminating articles in it are those by C. Despeux (“TheSix Healing Breaths”), S. Jackowitz (“Ingestion, Digestionand Regestation”), and L. Komjathy (“Qigong in America”).Clearly problematic is the article by M. Winn (“TransformingSexual Energy with Water and Fire Alchemy”). This articlepresents a very detailed, first-hand description of sexualyogic theories and techniques that Winn himself teaches andpractices. The problem is that Winn is claiming, on verytenuous grounds, that these techniques have their origins inan ancient and continuous tradition that is “Daoist”. As far ascan be ascertained (and as is mentioned in Komjathy’sarticle), the specific theories and techniques that he—and histeacher M. Chia—advocates are likely of very recent, Ameri-can origin. In sum, this volume was compiled with theworthy purpose of providing the public with a lucid, readableoverview of Daoist health and longevity methods. It alsoaspires to advance the field of Daoist studies by fusing theinsights of academics with those of practitioners. Unfortu-nately, it tends to mislead less-informed readers in regard tothe content and nature of Daoism as taught and practiced inChina in premodern times.

Stephen EskildsenThe University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

THE VIOLENCE OF LIBERATION: GENDER ANDTIBETAN BUDDHIST REVIVAL IN POST-MAOCHINA. By Charlene E. Makley. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 2007. Pp. xviii + 374; maps, figures. $60,ISBN 0-520-25059-1.

This wonderful book works through gender to reveal therevitalizing Tibetan monastery town of Labrang, locatedin west China at the historical meeting grounds of Tibetan,Han Chinese, Hui (Chinese Muslim), and Mongol cultures.Makley (Anthropology, Reed College) is a leading figure in ageneration of scholars equally at home in local and translo-cal Tibet and China, in anthropology, religion and psychol-inguistics, and in her own subjecthood and objecthood. Thisvantage offers startling access to “gendered contestationsand collusions in the [Labrang] valley,” moving us “fromlarger spatiotemporal and political economic contexts to theparticulars of gendered ritual and everyday encounters inand around the monastery.” Throughout Makley’s reasoningis densely textured and intellectually playful, both smart andwise, intimate and professional. Highly recommended for allserious libraries.

Kidder SmithBowdoin College

DEMOCRACY’S DHARMA: RELIGIOUS RENAIS-SANCE AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT INTAIWAN. By Richard Madsen. Berkeley: University of Cali-fornia Press, 200. Pp. 191; illustrations. Cloth, $55, ISBN978-0-520-25227-1; paper, $21.95, ISBN 978-0-520-25228-8.

Madsen in Democracy’s Dharma discusses the signifi-cance of the Taiwanese versions of Buddhism and Daoism

in shaping Taiwan’s emerging democracy. He argues thatpolitically progressive religions can develop in the twenty-first century without polarizing a democratic society andthat such religions need not harm but can enhance the func-tioning of civil institutions. A coauthor and colleague of R.Bellah’s, Madsen argues persuasively against two currentassumptions in political discourse regarding Asia anddemocracy: 1) that the cultures and values of Asian (read:Confucian) society are not conducive to and are incompatiblewith liberal democracy and that 2) a clash of Asian andWestern civilizations is inevitable. Madsen observes that thedevelopment of democracy in Taiwan, fragile though it maybe, did not require the Taiwanese to emulate standardWestern liberal theories of how democracy must work.Instead, Taiwan is experiencing a peaceful transition ofpower from dictatorship to democracy and the four Buddhistand Daoist organizations that he analyzes, holding Confu-cian virtues at their heart, are influencing that change.Madsen looks at the Buddhist and Daoist groups in Taiwanin the context of Jaspers’s “axial age” thesis. He finds reasonto hope that the universal truths of religion can inspireinformed and politically awakened individuals, in a theoreti-cal new axial age, to commit freely to transcendent ethicalnorms that will bind everyone in the beneficent systems ofDemocracy’s Dharma. Democracy’s Dharma will appeal toreaders in the sociology of religions; Madsen’s conclusionshave value for political scientists and students of contempo-rary Mahayana Buddhism in Taiwan as well.

Rev. Heng Sure, PhDInstitute for World Religions

Graduate Theological Union

DONORS OF LONGMEN: FAITH, POLITICS, ANDPATRONAGE IN MEDIEVAL CHINESE BUDDHISTSCULPTURE. By Amy McNair. Honolulu: University ofHawai’i Press, 2007. Pp. xi + 230; plates, illustrations. $56,ISBN 978-0-8248-2994-0.

This book presents a holistic interpretation of the reli-gious and/or political motivations of medieval donors, theirchoices of iconography and style, and their expenditure incommissioning icons and shrines at Longmen, the greatChinese Buddhist cave temple. It provides an overall chro-nological narrative on the major shrines, beginning withGuyang Grotto around 493 and ending with the last datedmajor project, the forty-eight Amitabhas added in 730. Donorvoices from inscriptions in situ show that the Longmen Grot-toes were conceived as a public arena to display expressionsof filial piety and loyalty to the throne, a sacred space topreserve the Dharma in the age of decline, and as a socialvenue to generate karmic merit and transfer it to beneficia-ries. Commanding a variety of primary and secondarysources, the author provides a major contribution to schol-arship on Longmen and more broadly the nature of patron-age and its visual correspondence in medieval China. Anappendix of dedicatory inscriptions and an up-to-date bibli-ography in both Asian and Western languages will be of

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great value to students and scholars in East Asian literature,history, Buddhist studies, and art history. A few of the expla-nations on the development of certain iconographies, suchas the Buddhas of the Three Periods and the Spirit Kings,could have delved a bit deeper into donors’ consciouschoices. The work, however, undoubtedly constitutes anextremely useful and comprehensive study of the Longmencave complex.

Sunkyung KimUniversity of Southern California

TEACHING CONFUCIANISM. Edited by Jeffrey L.Richey. Teaching Religious Studies Series, 9. New York:Oxford University Press (The American Academy of Reli-gion), 2008. Pp. ix + 230; bibliographic references andindex. $60, ISBN 978-0-19-531160-0.

This book of essays challenges the commonly hearddictum that Confucianism is not a religion. A distinguishedroster of seasoned professors affirm that Confucianism canbe taught effectively as a religious tradition, even if thecourse on Confucianism that one might be envisioning,or better yet actually teaching, will probably be cross-registered with the philosophy, economics, or even politicalscience departments. The definitional problem surroundingthe question of how to characterize Confucianism is not atrivial one. As J. Berthrong and J. Richey describe in theirintroduction, the “eclectic, pluralistic, and syncretic” quali-ties of Confucianism hardly conform to “the sort of canoni-cal, sectarian orthodoxy usually denoted by religion in theWest.” Indeed, J. Berling’s concluding essay argues thatstudying Confucianism in classrooms outside of East Asiarequires helping students to understand the “genuine other-ness” of Confucianism’s religious dimension. The teachingof it benefits from strategies that make students conscious ofConfucianism’s diffuseness and its primacy of practice overdoctrine, to name but a few of the ways in which Confucian-ism confounds an outsider’s expectations of it. All thevolume’s contributors see grappling with Confucianism’scomplexity as crucial for preparing students to live thought-fully in an increasingly globalized world. For a collegeor high school teacher, or a graduate student, looking toenlarge their sense of what Confucianism can mean, essaysby M. Csikszentmihalyi on ritual training, K. Knapp onpopular legends about filial piety, or J. Adler on divination asreligious practice, among others in the volume, will be readwith great interest.

Shelley Drake HawksBoston University

RECONSTRUCTING CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA:K. H. TING AND THE CHINESE CHURCH. By PhilipL. Wickeri. American Society of Missiologists Series 41.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007. Pp. xxv + 516. $50, ISBN1-57075-751-8.

Wickeri, now a missiologist at San Francisco Theologi-cal Seminary, served for many years in China through the

Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church(USA). While this book is informed by his personal relation-ship with the Ting family, it also brings together the wealthof scholarly research, both past and present, on ChineseChristianity in the last one hundred years. With seventypages of endnotes and over forty pages of bibliography, thelife, work, and thought of Bishop K. H. Ting (1915- ) is heredocumented and interpreted against the backdrop of twenti-eth century China, including the Japanese occupation duringthe Second World War, the Communist takeover, the Cul-tural Revolution (1966-76), the events leading up to andemergent from Tiananmen Square (1989), and other devel-opments in the ecumenical movement in Canada, the U.S.,and Europe (where Ting lived and moved about as a mission-ary from 1946 to 1951). Wickeri has provided the authorita-tive scholarly biography of Ting, as well as opened windowsinto the history of Chinese Protestantism, the Three SelfPatriotic Movement, and the China Christian Council. ButReconstructing Christianity in China is also an essential readfor missiologists, postcolonial theologians (Ting beingperhaps the Chinese exemplar here), political theologians(Ting breaks the moulds here), advocates of theologicalsocialism (embraced in various forms by Ting), andresearchers interested in evangelical and Pentecostal Chris-tianity in China (where Ting leaves an ambiguous legacy),among others. In successfully capturing the significance andcontroversial legacy of Ting, this book is a remarkableachievement.

Amos YongRegent University School of Divinity

BuddhismTHE HISTORY OF THE BUDDHA’S RELIC SHRINE:A TRANSLATION OF THE SINHALATHUPAVAMSA. By Stephen C. Berkwitz. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2007. Pp. xv + 304. $75, ISBN 0-19-530139-0.

Berkwitz’s work is a translation of the SinhalaThupavamsa , a vernacular chronicle composed in the thir-teenth century by Parakrama Pandita. The work begins witha short but helpful introduction to the text and its author, itsgenre (the vamsa genre of Buddhist historical literature),and the topic that it treats, the Buddhist cult of relics. It alsodiscusses the history of vernacular literature in Sri Lanka.This is followed by the translation, which is very clear andenriched with informative annotations. The text relatesstories that were well known in medieval Sri Lanka, includ-ing the life story of Sakyamuni Buddha, with particularemphasis placed on the dispensation of his relics. It narratesin rich detail the relic shrine built by the victorious Sinhalaking Dutugamunu�� . The text serves the important role oflegitimating contemporary Buddhist practices of relic ven-eration in Sri Lanka. The translation could be criticized ontechnical grounds for its reliance on a noncritical edition,

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